Knitted garment panel

ABSTRACT

A method of knitting a shaped panel for making up together with other panels into a garment; needles are taken out of action at the edges of the panel to reduce the number of wales in the panel to shape it, and knitted loops are held on the inactive needles whilst knitting continues, at a later stage, said inactive needles are brought back into knitting action again or the loops are cast off.

United States Patent [1 1 Betts et al.

[ Dec. 11, 1973 KNITTED GARMENT PANEL Inventors: Max William Betts,Coventry; Frank Robinson, Borrowash, both of England qurta m t d Lsmd mEngland Filed: July 29, 1971 Appl. No.: 167,173

Assignee:

US. Cl. 66/76 Int. Cl D04b 7/10 Field of Search 66/67, 70, 76, 189

. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1962 MacQueen 66/76 650,3765/1900 Donner 66/189X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 348,499 10/1960Switzerland ,66/189 Primary Examiner-Ronald Feldbaum Attorney-Davis,Hoxie, Faithfull & Hapgood [57] ABSTRACT 3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure "Wil/iii. "W /W6 PAIENTED DEC] 1 I975 llllllilllHHf! Inventors MEX WILLAAHB571:

F214 K. ROBIN s Attorneys KNITTED GARMENT PANEL 7 Thisinven tion relatesto the knitting of shaped panels for garments.

One :method of producing a knitted garment com 7 method ofknittingshaped. garment panels. on a flat V-bed knitting machine havingindependently operable needles and. onwhich the patterningpotential canbe greater than on a fully fashioned flat bar machine.

A method of knitting ashapedgarmentpanel according to the inventionincludes the step of narrowing the panelbyltakingneedlesat one edge atleast of the panel out of action whilstmaintaining loops on the needlesthus made inactive, knitting being continued on other needles, and.bringing the said inactive needles, back into operation tocontinueknitting, or to press off their loops torelease the knitted panelfromthemachine.

The method can be carried. out on a, flat V-bed knitting: machine havingweb-holding sinkers or having a presser foot, suchias that described inthespecification of-published German Application P 19 56 190, servinginwplace of normaltake down rollers and7may. also be carried outinsuitable circumstanceson other V-bed machines having takedownmechanismscapable of exerting a downward force on the knitting which canbe varied across the machine and/or during knitting. The invention maybe carried out on other knitting machines with independentlyoperableneedles and a take down mechanism or, alternative mechanism withsuitable characteristics.

If part of thepanel has to be widened, the widening canbe effected byneedle introduction at an edge or edges of the panel.

. In one example of the method according. to the invention the bodypanel shown in the accompanying drawing is knitted in rib knitting on aV-bed knitting machine having a presser foot as described inthe aforementionedspecification and a looper arrangement as described in thespecificationof published German Application P 20 59 094. Take downrollers are not used.

A length of ribknitting is cast on to theneedles of the machine tocommence knitting at the waist end of the panel. Casting onto emptyneedles can be effected without difficulty using the presser footreferred to above. Knitting is then carried out on thesame number ofneedlesuntilthe number of courses required for the waist band 1 of thepanel has been completed.

The garment panel is then widened by needle introduction at the edges ofthe panel to produce theportion 2 of the panel. In the present example,needles are introduced in pairs at the two edges of the panel. Theintroduction is effected by programming the patterning mechanism ofthemachine in such a way that the butts of four extra needles, arepresented to a cam track in the cam box in each course in which wideningis to take place.

The yarn carriers of the machine are arranged to move over a number ofneedles in excess of the number required to knit the widest part of thepanel so that yarn is available for newly operated needles as they arebrought into action.

Of the four needles brought into action at each widening, two are at oneend of the bank of previously active needles and two are at the otherend. In knitting the present rib knitted panel, of each adjacent pair ofneedles brought into action, one needle is in one bed of the machine andone in the other.

After the widened portion 2 of the panel hasbeen knitted, aparallel-sided portion 3 of the panel is knitted up to the underarmposition 4 and thereafter narrowing of the panel is commenced to producethe portion 5 of the panel.

Narrowing is effected, in the present example, by taking out of actionpairs of needles at the ends of the bank of activeneedles on the machineproducing the stepped line seen along theedges 6 of the panel. Of thepairs of adjacent needles taken out of action, one is in one bed of themachine and one in the other. The needles are taken out of 7 action byprogramming the patterning mechanism of the machine in such a way that,in each course in which narrowing is to be effected, butts of twoneedles at each edge of the panel are removed from the positions atwhich they can enter a cam track in the cam box of the machine. Theseneedles are thus made inoperative in such a. way that the last loopformed on each of these needles is retained in the hook. The fact thatloops are maintained in the hooks of needles not performing a knittingaction whilst the knitting I of the panel proceeds is indicatedschematically at 7. in

the drawing. 7

In the present example, to produce a Raglan style garment, narrowing iscarried out every second course until the neck of. the panel is reached.The programming mechanism is arranged to bring all the needles holdingloops back into operation at this juncture, so thatthe previouslyinactive needles are raised by the cams to cast off theirloops. No yarnis supplied to the 7 empty needles to the full width required for thenext panel.

Instead of casting off loops only when the knitting of the panel iscomplete, held loops can be cast off when asubstantial part of the panelhas been completed and before further. narrowing, creating 7 additionalheld loops, is carried out. For example casting off may be carried outonce or perhaps twice or more during the knitting of a panel.

Since no loops are cast off until all or a substantial part of the panelhas been completed, no non-knitting traverses of the cam box arerequired in order to operate needles tocast off loops at frequentintervals during the knitting of the panel. The overall time taken toknit a panel is therebyreduced.

Patterning and stitch effects can be incorporated in the panel accordingto the capabilities of the machine on which the panel is knitted.

Although the knitting of a panel in rib knitting has been described indetail, the method according to. the invention can also be carried outin plain knitting. If desired a rib border can be knitted first onneedles of two opposed beds of needles before the loops on one bed aretransferred to the opposite bed to continue in plain knitting.

Instead of casting off loops held on inactive needles when the panel iscomplete, with the result that garment panels drop individually from themachine, a succession of panels joined together can be knitted bysupplying a draw thread or waste yarn to the still active needles whichare knitting the narrow upper end portion of the panel when thepreviously inactive needles are again brought back into operation tocast off the held loops. One or more courses of draw thread or wasteyarn can be knitted before knitting the first course of the next panelwithout need for widening the said draw thread or waste yarn coursesbefore knitting the said first course.

In previous methods of knitting shaped panels, successively longercourses of draw thread or waste yarn have been knitted to widen theknitted fabric from the narrow upper portion of one panel to the longerfirst course of the next. In the present method the inclusion of suchsuccessively longer widening courses is not necessary.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of knitting a flat shaped panel for a finished garment inwhich the knitted wales run substantially vertically, said methodcomprising the steps of knitting the panel on needles of a knittingmachine with independently operable needles, narrowing at least aportion of the panel along at least one edge thereof by taking aplurality of needles serially out of action whilst maintaining loops ofsaid panel on the needles thus made inactive, meanwhile continuingknitting of the panel on other needles of the machine, bringing saidneedles and only said needles which have been taken out of actionserially back into action together, and casting off loops to release atleast said portion of the panel from the needles.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said inactive needles arebrought back into operation when the knitting of the panel has beencompleted.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein needles rendered inactivewhilst holding loops are brought back into operation together forcasting off before completion of the panel and further needles at oneedge at least of the panel are taken out of action whilst loops aremaintained on said further needles, knitting of the panel beingcontinued on other needles, said fur ther inactive needles being broughtback into operation together for casting off.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. "CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Pat t N3,777,511 Dated December 11, 1973 Inventor(s) Max William Betts-FrankRobinson 1 It is certified that error appears in the above-identifiedpatent i and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shownbelow:

I n In the heading the following should appear:

Claims priority of Great Britain 1 38840, filed August 12 1970 Signedand sealed this 23rd day of July 1974. 1

( SEAL Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON, JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner ofPatents

1. A method of knitting a flat shaped panel for a finished garment inwhich the knitted wales run substantially vertically, said methodcomprising the steps of knitting the panel on needles of a knittingmachine with independently operable needles, narrowing at least aportion of the panel along at least one edge thereof by taking aplurality of needles serially out of action whilst maintaining loops ofsaid panel on the needles thus made inactive, meanwhile continuingknitting of the panel on other needles of the machine, bringing saidneedles and only said needles which have been taken out of actionserially back into action together, and casting off loops to release atleast said portion of the panel from the needles.
 2. A method accordingto claim 1 wherein said inactive needles are brought back into operationwhen the knitting of the panel has been completed.
 3. A method accordingto claim 1 wherein needles rendered inactive whilst holding loops arebrought back into operation together for casting off before completionof the panel and further needles at one edge at least of the panel aretaken out of action whilst loops are maintained on said further needles,knitting of the panel being continued on other needles, said furtherinactive needles being brought back into operation together for castingoff.